


Music of Heartstrings

by OwlQuill



Series: [Strange Magic Canon Expansion] [1]
Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: Music
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-07-16 21:09:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7284892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OwlQuill/pseuds/OwlQuill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of scenes from strange Magic, focusing on music and the related feelings.</p><p>Probably won't make sense if you don't know the movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Love

It was Marianne's wedding day, and her heart was overflowing. Out on the meadow, looking for parts for a boutonniere to have her own hands' work to show how much she loved Roland, she sang out her joy. The song was old, everybody knew it, but her feelings flowed into it like water into a vase; it was easy. It fit! She did not need to find her own words and melody, and could spare some attention for her foraging. She spent too much attention on imagining Roland's face, though, and tumbled into the Dark Forest, where fear blanketed her mood, and her music faltered.

***

The pixies' song, simple as it was, seemed to tug on the top of Marianne's head, straightening her up, lifting her heart. And the boutonniere was perfect. All right, it was not her own hands' work, but it was her idea, and her feelings held in it, and Roland had to love it. This would be the best day of their lives!

Before the pixies' reassurance quite faded, Marianne picked up her song. She sang because if she didn't, her joy would tear her apart.

***

Roland sang for his latest little lover, and for practice. His face was a gift, but his hair and mannerisms and singing, he had worked for. Impressing with looks, and influencing with words and song was a subtle kind of power that would eventually get him what he wanted. A girl to have some fun with hearing him sing about love while approaching her would be in a mood do please him. And all the work he and his family had put into winning over King Dagda and Marianne would pay off. Today he would bind the princess, the most coveted trophy in the game of romantic conquests the kingdom had to offer, to himself, and thus be a huge leap closer to true power.

***

Marianne heard Roland before she saw him, singing the same song she had been singing for him. Her worry had been unfounded; he did love her as much as she loved him. She had never been happier, she felt lighter than air, carried by the music they shared.

Until she saw Roland kissing a stranger.

Her song died.

When the truth of his betrayal made it past her disbelief, the unsettling silence in her soul was replaced by a dirge.

She fled, sobbing, but she could not escape her own heart.


	2. Never Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Marianne learning of Roland's betrayal

Marianne was too shocked for a song. Silence and occasional minor chords where all she could hear in her head. Wanting to hide her tears so she didn’t have to explain them, she retreated to her room. The betrayal was just too great to grasp yet. It hurt too much to think like a member of the royal family and consider any consequences. All she could do right then was seek the comfort of her rose flower bed and cry her heart out, hoping to ease to pain of too many feelings filling it to cracking.  
Her sister found her eventually.

“Marianne? What happened?”

For Dawn, she picked herself up. But she hurt so much. She didn’t want Dawn to hurt, too. Or for her little sister to think her stupid for trusting a cheater. “I... I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Not even to me?”

“I can’t. I’m sorry”

“But wait, I— Wait!”

Marianne closed the door on her sister’s protest, leaned against it, head lowered. “Tell dad, the wedding’s off.”

She had to deal with this alone. The pain of betrayal, the shame at having misjudged Roland so. How could this have happened?

Finally, when her breathing was steady enough to carry it, a song rose from her soul. 

“What do you get when you fall in love?” You see everything through a pink haze, heard only what you wanted to hear.

“A guy with a pin to burst your bubble.” Maybe she had been naive. But he had been treacherous. “That’s what you get for all your trouble.”

The song pulled some of her sadness out of her, letting it unfold, giving other feeling enough room to become apparent. Under the despair, there was growing anger. Anger at Roland’s lies and manipulation. Anger at herself, that she had not paid attention. He had not been joking when he said for her disfigurement would be worse than death, he really thought so. Anger at that all-mighty, all-important “Love”. It had clouded her mind with its stories and scripts and things that were supposed to just meant to be.

Being in love was worse than being drunk, because it lasted longer.

“I’ll never fall in love again.”

Her anger changed the song, making it faster and giving it power. The change in the song supported her courage. There was still sadness underlying it, but it also held a fierceness to it she couldn’t remember hearing before, at least in her mind. 

Over the following year, both she and the song changed together, without ever losing connection to the betrayal that brought them together.


	3. No Worries

If someone had told Sunny two years ago that he would enjoy trying to set up the girl he was in love with with other guys, he would have thought it a bad joke. But he really did. Okay, maybe there was a slightly bitter tinge somwhere underneath, mildly annoying like the occasional face full of dandelion fluff, but seeing Dawn happy was so much sweetness, it was worth it. He had always found her mood infectious, particularly her joy.

So when Dawn thinking of her latest crush led to her having an attack of nerves — "What if he doesn't like me?", as if that were possible — Sunny tried to cheer her up.

 _"Don't worry_  
_about a thing_  
_cause every little thing_  
_will be all right."_

He had sung _Three Little Birds_ for her before, qite a few times over the years. Skinned knees or a ripped dress, a lost toy or more serious things. Last year, when Marianne had called off her wedding without giving a reason, that had called for a particularly slow and gentle version he'd sung for both sisters. Marianne had just smiled oddly, and excused herself, but it had calmed Dawn.

_"I woke up this morning  
Smiled at the rising sun"_

Dawn rolled her eyes a little when, as always, Sunny pointed at her at that line, but her face glowed with cheer.

Nothing serious today; today was all about going to a party, and the problem wasn't that she might meet her future husband, it was just a little hitch in Dawn's mood, so Sunny kept the song bouncy and bright, putting as much energy in as he could

Once she laughed and joined in, he didn't even have to work on it. They played off each other with over half a lifetime of familiarity, boosting each other and the music between them.

The ball later was for fairies, but at least here and now, she danced with him. All was right with the world, for a short time.

"Sunny?"

"I'm trying to sing!" Quite apart from wanting to finish the song for its own sake, he did not want to let Dawn's mood crash again, which it seemed to be on the way to doing.

"Sunny?"

_"Don't worry about a thing."_

"Sunny!"

"What?!"

"Worry!"

A giant lizard burst into the clearing, ripping through the remnants of the song with feral chords.

**Author's Note:**

> Any dialogue is taken directly from the movie.


End file.
